By Steve Neavling
Former national security adviser and QAnon conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn filed a wrongful prosecution lawsuit against the federal government and is seeking $50 million in damages.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court last week, lists the defendants as the Justice Department, FBI, former special counsel Robert Mueller, former FBI Director James Comey, and former bureau employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, Rolling Stone reports.
In the suit, Flynn alleges he was unfairly targeted because of his “lawful association with the 2016 Presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump and his position as National Security Advisor in the Trump Administration.”
Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his connections with Russian contacts.
In the suit, Flynn alleges the federal government coerced him into pleading guilty by threatening to prosecute his son.
Former President Trump pardoned Flynn shortly after the 2020 election.
“This lawsuit seeks accountability and damages against the United States for these wrongs committed against General Flynn through its agents and agencies,” the suit states, calling the prosecution “wrongful and malicious” and a “gross abuse of process.”
Flynn alleges that he was “falsely branded as a traitor to his country, lost at least tens of millions of dollars of business opportunities and future lifetime earning potential, [and] was maliciously prosecuted and spent substantial monies in his own defense.”
Nevertheless, Flynn has a credibility issue. After he left the Trump administration, Flynn has pushed unfounded conspiracy theories inspired by the QAnon movement and has repeatedly made baseless claims that Trump was robbed in the election.
